The invention pertains to an apparatus for disintegrating breakable materials, such as wood, cinder block, brick, pipes, etc., and especially relates to striker bars, which disintegrate breakable materials by being impacted thereagainst.
It is conventional to disintegrate or comminute breakable materials such as wood and residual building materials, e.g., bricks, concrete blocks, pipes, for example, by means of so-called hammer hogs, hammer mills, rotor hogs, tub grinders, etc. Those devices operate under the basic principle of rotating a drum to bring grinding elements, carried by the drum, into contact with the materials to be ground. The grinding elements have straight edges that can be hard-faced with carbide, which contact the materials and produce a grinding or crushing action which gradually wears away the materials. As pieces of the materials become ground small enough, they travel through a screen or grating which partially surrounds the drum at a slight distance. The screen can be disposed above or below the drum, and the materials can be introduced between the drum and screen in a radial or axial direction with reference to an axis of rotation of the drum. The grinding elements can be fixed to the drum so as to be immovable relative thereto, or swingable relative to the drum about respective hinge pins.
Material disintegrators of that general type are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,066,216; 5,165,611; 5,096,129; 5,950,942 and 4,586,663. Depicted in the accompanying FIG. 1 is a driven rotary drum 10 of the general type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,165,611. The drum includes a plurality of coaxial segments 12, each having circumferentially spaced seats for receiving respective striker plates or bars 20xe2x80x2. Each striker bar 20xe2x80x2 is bolted to its respective seat and presents a straight edge 14 which engages and crushes the material introduced through an inlet 13. As the material becomes crushed into pieces of a small enough size, the pieces pass through a grate 16 disposed beneath the drum.
Since the striker bars 20xe2x80x2 function primarily to crush and grind the materials, considerable energy is expended during operation. Also, much dust and small particles are produced. The cutting edges, even though having been hard-faced with carbide, tend to wear at a relatively rapid rate.
It would be desirable, therefore, to provide a striker bar which requires less energy while increasing the throughput rate of the materials. It would also be desirable to enable the amount of dust and small particles generated during operation to be reduced, as well as to increase the useful life of the striker bars.
The present invention relates to a striker bar adapted for use on a rotary holder for disintegrating materials. The striker bar comprises a support body having top and bottom surfaces. The top surface includes an edge portion. Cutting tips are fixed to the body and extend along the edge portion. The cutting tips are formed of a harder material than the body, and the cutting tips together form a notched cutting edge, such as a serrated or scallop shaped cutting edge.
The invention also pertains to an apparatus for disintegrating breakable materials, comprising a rotary drum and a plurality of the above-described striker bars mounted thereon.
The invention also pertains to a method of disintegrating material by rotating such a drum.